Here are a few portraits from my current project on Indians discussing their idea of India: Actor Manoj Bajpayee Journalist and writer Supriya Nair Pankaj Kumar, migrant worker Sidhique Kappan, jailed journalist More here.
Posts Tagged: India
Lethal Heat
I have a piece in The Guardian on the election results asking if we can have democracy if temperatures continue to rise. The crucial point to be noted here is that the heat did not figure at all among the thundering sentiments delivered from the dais by the candidates. The prominent environmentalist Ashish Kothari told… Read more »
India Votes
My little paean to current Indian politics is presented during this interview with Al Jazeera. A few days ago an Indian newspaper asked if I could recommend a literary text that shed light on Indian elections. I wrote back that in my new novel My Beloved Life, I have put a scene that… Read more »
Becoming Indian
I was born and grew up in India, and I’m trying to remember when I became Indian. That is the opening line of my essay in the latest issue of Foreign Policy, a special issue devoted to India. Here is the rest of my essay.
River Notes
I’m starting a Substack with an account of my journey, beginning June 25, through small towns and cities on the banks of the Ganges. Subscribe here.
Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate
Granta Magazine, one of my favorite literary journals, has just published a report of mine entitled “Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate.” Above are the first two pages. Get a copy of Issue no. 162 or subscribe online. Here’s a paragraph from the piece: In Delhi the heat is chemical, something unworldly, a… Read more »
2022
At the beginning of 2022, I published The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal. A joy to be read by people who had inspired me in my youth. This comment from Pritish Nandy: https://twitter.com/PritishNandy/status/1488780984061669377 It is sad that Bookforum is now gone. In the work I did in 2022, I wrote a piece on cricket… Read more »
Writer’s Notebook
In the manuscripts and archives section of the British library, I found Shiva Naipaul’s notebook that he kept during his visit to India to report on the assassination of Indira Gandhi. My piece about that notebook has been published in the Hindustan Times. Read it here.
Outlook Magazine
Read the interview here.
On Our Grief
In the Indian Express, my article on our current grief. “The contagion has produced a new world, no doubt, but everything appears to be only a repetition of all that was there before.” More